This was my first time at this “low-waste, alcohol free, pet free, smoke free and must have fun event.”  I went with my blogging friend Laureen Hudson, her daughter (Michael stayed in Petaluma with Miriam and Aurora’s big brothers), and Laureen’s friend Lisa.

Held at the beautiful and green Salmon Creek School (pause a moment to lament that we don’t live near enough for my daughter to attend a school with such clean air and lack of chemical stink), it was a mix of hippie aesthetic with practical advice, local businesses, and of course samples galore.

Fermentation roughly falls into two categories: dead and alive.  This event covered both.  Alcohol and bread are the two best examples of the former.  You can’t make them without fermentation (excluding things like crackers or tortillas) but we eat them for the taste and general nutrition (and they preserve foods without winter or electricity).  There are few to no probiotics.  Probiotics are what make ferments live.  You eat these for all the usual reasons but also for the nutritional powerhouse of the yeasts and bacteria.  Yoghurt, kefir, krauts, and pickles are the best known live ferments (though they aren’t always sold live).

As regular readers of my blog know, I make a variety of vegetable ferments (krauts and pickles).  And I long to make more.  I’ve tried my hand at coconut yoghurt and have plans to make water kefir next.  Another project on my list is dairy-free cheese (something pungent, like blue).

Many attendees lamented the lack of alcohol at a festival dedicated in part to its production.  But there were workshops covering spirits; my guess is logistical concerns kept out the samples.  Cheese (from cow, sheep, or goat milk) was another large component.  Since dairy and I don’t get along well, I had to skip that part.  No one there makes non-dairy cheese but I will make this my mission to find out how.

The Beverage People in Santa Rosa has classes and equipment/ingredients for sale for a wide variety of fermented products, but their specialities are beer, wine, and cheese.  My friend Gabe Jackson, who works there, even made us a case and a half of blackberry wine (picked from our garden–and yes, a post on that is coming!).  He’s promised to keep his eyes open for information on non-dairy cheesemaking.  His dairy cheese class at the festival was a big hit.

I attended classes on sauerkraut and pickle making, both with demos and fairly straightforward advice for beginners.  Kathryn Lukas, the owner of The Farmhouse Culture, demonstrated a simple cabbage ferment.  The woman next to me sounded peals of joy when Kathryn said don’t bother to pound your cabbage, just massage it a bit with salt to release the juices.  Since it had never occurred to me to pound my veggies, I just smiled, but now I wonder what I do that isn’t necessary or what little things I might be missing.  Kraut making is pretty easy, but there is a lot that can go wrong too.

Another thing that that hadn’t occurred to me was the sugar content of the vegetables.  Usually with ferments sugar is a good thing, even necessary, as it feeds the yeasts.  But *aha moment* what makes krauts go off often is the yeasts gaining control; krauts and pickles are a bacterial ferment, not so much yeast.

Most of our kraut is red onion.  Most of the time it comes out fabulous.  Once in a while we get an unwelcome surprise.  I asked Kathryn her opinion and she said it was likely the sugar in the onions.  Which can vary a lot.  I don’t know how to fix this…can I add some acid?  Can I measure the sugar to know which onions to avoid?  I don’t want to mix with large amounts of other vegetables.

Kathryn says to keep your vegetable blends no less than 75% cabbage so they come out well every time.  That works great for kim chee, which I also make, but sometimes you want something different.  I asked her if there was a chart of different buggies (desirable and undesirable) but she didn’t know of one.  I would find that very helpful, since I know what my off ferments look/smell/taste like and could match the bugs.

Jill Nussinow (the “Veggie Queen“) taught pickles.  These should be easy but even more can go wrong than with krauts.  I’ve made cucumber pickles and had one fantastic batch, a couple okay batches, and one batch we couldn’t eat.  Turnip pickles were so-so and tomato pickles were a total fail (though I sat near someone who said her green tomato pickles come out great, so I’ll give it another try).  Cool temperatures seem to be pretty important (you can get away with summer temps with kraut) and so is good technique.  Other than that, I’m not exactly sure why mine fail so often.

This very expensive crook was much touted at the festival.  What do the experts say? does it make better kraut or pickles?  The answer is no, but it does make it a lot easier.  You still have to weigh down the veggies (you never want them to contact air); this crock does come with weights.  But apparently when you fill the outside rim with water and put on the lid, you get a seal that lets CO2 leave without letting air in.  So less chance of trouble.

In addition to the pricey rimmed crock, Cultivate in Sebastopol had a variety of crocks and other equipment, at decent prices.

One ferment I’ve been wanting to make for a while is water kefir.  Dairy kefir is pretty common and makes a drink similar to liquid yoghurt, though the buggies are totally different.  Instead of using a bit as a starter, like you do with yoghurt, you strain and save the kefir grains, which are like tapioca.  You put the grains into your new liquid and go again.  The grains will multiply with time so there are plenty to share.

You can use dairy kefir grains in a non-dairy liquid and they will turn into water kefir grains.  It’s the same minus a few cultures that only reproduce with dairy.  So you can’t make dairy kefir with water kefir grains.

Water kefir is delicious and can be made fizzy or flat.  Apple juice is a common base, so is coconut water (not to be confused with coconut milk).  But you can make it with water too, as long as you add some sugar to feed the yeastie beasties.  Like with all ferments, the bugs eat the sugar and you’re left with a low (or at least lower) carb product.

The folks at Cleansing Ministries Rejuvenation Center in Santa Rosa gave a demonstration on making ginger root beer water kefir.  I can’t wait to make it.  Once I get my hands on some water kefir grains, I’ll blog the full recipe and my results.  Miriam adores kefired apple juice, which she had at a friend’s once, but I am allergic to raw apples and apple juice and found that the symptoms kicked in after too many samples of apple ginger kefir.

Nowhere could you see the hippie/mainstream dichotomy of the festival better than by looking at the water kefir demo and the “Fermented Foods and your health” talk. Karen Miller-Youst admonished us not to make kefir in a room where there had been anger and Dr. John La Puma gave us isolated sounds bites about the medical wonders of fermented foods.

John started us off with his credentials (part his resume and part the famous people he’s worked with), accompanied by a glossy flyer advertising his book.  The flyer was similar to the talk, filled with little tips like “cooked carrots and cooked tomatoes are better for you than raw” (something that is not only banal but wrong: soft or ground carrots make it easier to get the nutrients out but raw whole ones still have them and there is exactly one nutrient, lycopene, in tomatoes that is present in higher amounts when cooked, not exactly a reason to give up raw produce).

But onward to the talk.  What would you consider the number one reason to eat live fermented foods?  John’s was that probiotics lower the incidence of antibiotic-induced diarrhea (he even said it twice and had it on a slide).  Yep, it’s true, but…  His other reasons were about how probiotics are good for various gut conditions.  Also true.  But very allopathic.  You can’t be a doctor unless you treat disease, and all bodily workings are mostly separate from each other.  Right? Not really.

Granted, I left the talk before the end (the room was giving me a headache, the only problem I had in the building), but not once did I hear him say anything about the normal role ferments play in human health.  How every traditional culture has them in spades.  How they exist in nature as well and are part of non-agricultural societies cuisines.  How they work and why they are not just “healthy” things we can eat but essential to keeping our bodies balanced.

Fortunately, the organizers and attendees in Freestone needed no convincing.  The emphasis was on how to get more ferments in our lives, not why.  A nice playground and a butterfly ride for the kids, tons of samples (I could could have drunk Farmhouse Culture’s pickle juice all day), foods for sale, and live music rounded out the day.  I’ll be back next year!

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

My friend used slicing cucs (the kind you put in salad), cut into chunks.  They were delicious but a bit mushy with a thick skin.  I knew I’d want to use pickling cucs, which are thin-skinned, solid, and just the right size for pickles.  I found some at an organic farm stand I passed on my way to an appointment in Santa Rosa.  The farmer insisted I take some heads of dill as well.

I used the making sour pickles recipe from fellow tribe member Sandor Katz, author of Wild Fermentation.  With other veggie ferments, you add salt, massage it in, and let the vegetable juices come out and cover the veggies (adding some salt water if necessary).  But, with whole pickles, you need to make a brine.  With cucumber pickles especially, the salt to water ratio matters.  I used 3 tablespoons salt in 2 quarts/liters of water.

I also added a large head of dill flower, a small handful of peppercorns, and some grape leaves.  Katz (and other sources) say the grape leaves help make the pickles crunchier.  I figured it couldn’t hurt, and I do have a nice grape vine in the back of my property.  Next time though I’ll make extra grape leaves and then use them for stuffed grape leaves since all the commercial ones have preservatives.  If you want garlic, toss in a few peeled cloves.

Seasoning for pickles

Put your dry seasonings in the bottom of the container (use glass or ceramic; plastic works but I can’t recommend it).  You don’t have to sterilize it first but do make sure it’s clean.  Wash the cucumbers, cut out any bad spots, and remove any remaining blossom ends with your fingernail or a knife.  You can keep the stems.  Pack tightly into the container.

Packing pickles

Now, pour in the salt solution, making sure all the cucumbers are covered.  Put a plate or jar or other weight into the container to keep the pickles submerged.  I used a plate with a water-filled jar on top.  Cover the container with a loose fitting lid or towel to keep it clean.

Put the container on your kitchen counter or some other place that’s not too hot or too cold.  Don’t put into your fridge; it won’t ferment.

A plate as a jar weight

Check the pickles every day.  There will be a lot more mold growth than with sauerkraut and other vegetables.  Carefully wipe it away, cleaning the plate/weight as well.  You can dip a cup or ladle into the brine to pull off mold from the top.  The mold is white and isn’t overtly harmful but it will make your pickles mushy and bad tasting.  Don’t worry about traces but try to get most of it.

After 5 days, my pickles were crunchy with a slight tang but were more cucumber than pickle.  At two weeks they were just right.  You should taste now and then to see how you like them.  Some people go a month or more.  It’s not only a matter of taste (do you want sour, half sour, dill, etc?) but the salt concentration and temperature will make a big difference in the fermentation rate.  When they’re done, clean things up one last time and stick the container in the fridge.

Pickles ready for eating

This batch came out pickle perfect.  But my second batch, not so much.  That time I bought organic pickling cucs from the farmer’s market and they had air spaces in the middle.  You just can’t predict this.  The pickles took less time to cure and still tasted fine (though not as flavorful since I didn’t have any dill) and the texture wasn’t bad, but I didn’t get that solid pickle crunch when I bit into them.  I also had a lot more trouble with mold the second time, even after refrigerating.  They’re still edible but I’m not sure what went wrong.  Guess I’ll have to practice some more…next cucumber season.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

It’s an international list, with most subscribers living in the US. Monica lives in Los Angeles, and I got to meet her when I was in LA for Expo West last year. This year, we planned a potluck and invited all local Foodlab members. Unfortunately, there were some last minute cancellations, but we had a lot of fun.

(Miriam, Cyndi, Jessica, Monica)

Monica and Matt, and 3.5 year old son Donovan, hosted the event. Jessica came with 2 year old daughter Roxie. And Michael and I (Cyndi) were there with barely 3 year old Miriam.

(Monica & Jessica)

(Cyndi & Monica)

Our first order of business was to go through the several supermarket-sized bags of samples and literature I’d brought from Expo West to share.

(Jessica, Roxie, Monica)

Next we started cooking.

(Jessica making vegan curry)

(Jessica & Cyndi making tortillas)

And then we ate.

(Miriam, Donovan, & Roxie ready to eat, with Michael in the background)

All of the food was amazing. We banned any ingredient that none of us could eat (dairy, gluten) and anything that would cause a problem for someone if they got a trace (soy, canola, orange, egg, chocolate). We allowed but discouraged foods that one or more people had a problem with (reaction or a choice) but where a trace wouldn’t matter (meat, corn). And it was a given in this group that everything would be fresh and free of food additives.

(Jessica’s vegan curry)

Here’s what we ate:

Monica:

Olive bread
Crab cakes
Misc pre-dinner snacks (veggies & chips)

Jessica:

Keifer (non-dairy keifer grains fermenting apple juice)
Curry
Hummus with eggplant
Cashew cream with fresh strawberries (similar to my recipe)

Cyndi:

Pickled red onions
Corn tortillas (made on site with Jessica)
Halibut ceviche

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Recipe:

Napa cabbage (aka Chinese cabbage), 1 head chopped
Daikon radish, 3
Leeks, 2
Dried chile pepper, 3
Ginger (I used frozen that I had grated from fresh root), a couple tablespoons
Celtic salt

Prep all the ingredients into a large bowl. I chopped the cabbage by hand and used my mandolin on the leek bottoms and daikon radish. I decided not to use the attachment to julienne. I just sliced. So the radish pieces are thin but large. In retrospect, I should have cut them in half or fourths. I used all the extra veggie bits to make a lovely fish stock.

Add salt and knead the mixture (or let it sit) to release the juices.

Next, pack the veggies tightly into a clean glass jar or other container. Pour the juice into the jar. Put a weight into the jar to keep the veggies submerged (I used a clean jar with water in it). Cover the whole thing with a towel and check it the next day. If there isn’t enough liquid, add some salt water.

Kim Chee, Red Onions, and Turnips
The pan of soapy water is to keep out ants

Then let it sit for a week, two, three, or as long as you like. If there is mold, just wipe/spoon it away and clean the weight too. When you are ready to decant, work carefully so that you keep any mold on top where it is easy to get rid of it. This batch had a little bit of mold on top so I removed those bits that were affected. Don’t be afraid of mold; there is so much good bacteria in the mix that the mold isn’t going to hurt you, it just can add an off taste.

The kim chee came out great. I left it to ferment for 3 weeks. The veggies are still reasonably crisp and they have a fabulous sour ginger flavor. Not much heat but you can taste it.

This picture is of the kim chee I made (on left) and the turnip pickles (on right).

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

I can tell you straight out that I used the wrong kind of turnip. What I had was ordinary purple top, but the ones at the restaurant were a different variety (the waitstaff didn’t know which). I also didn’t get the seasonings right.

The recipe for this or any other fermented vegetable is very easy. Wash and cut your vegetable(s). I used turnips and some dried chile peppers I removed the seeds from and broke up with my hands. Put in a bowl with some salt (I used kosher, to taste). Knead it all a bit so the juices release, or just let it sit.

Next, pack the veggies tightly into a clean glass jar or other container. Pour the juice into the jar. Put a weight into the jar to keep the veggies submerged (I used a clean soy sauce jar with water in it). Cover the whole thing with a towel and check it the next day. If there isn’t enough liquid, add some salt water.

Kim Chee, Red Onions, and Turnips
The pan of soapy water is to keep out ants

Then let it sit for a week, two, three, or as long as you like. If there is mold, just wipe/spoon it away and clean the weight too. When you are ready to decant, work carefully so that you keep any mold on top where it is easy to get rid of it. This batch had plenty on top but I spooned it out then poured the top bit of liquid in the sink. Don’t be afraid of mold; there is so much good bacteria in the mix that the mold isn’t going to hurt you, it just can add an off taste.

Now you’re ready to eat. This picture is of the kim chee I made (on left) and the turnip pickles (on right). I tried the turnip pickles after a week of fermenting and they had very little flavor and were quite boring. I finally decanted them after 6 weeks. The flavor is good (though not at all spicy) but the texture is too soft. They’re still quite edible but nothing like the restaurant pickles. Now I have an excuse to make more.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Add salt to taste. Let sit and/or knead a bit with one hand.

Pack onions tightly into a clean glass jar. Pour in any leftover onion juice. Label the jar with the product and the date.

Take a clean glass jar with a diameter smaller than the opening of the onion jar. Fill the smaller jar with water and put on a lid. Place it inside the onion jar to keep the onions submerged under the liquid. (The pan of water, and a touch of soap, is to keep out ants.)

Cover the whole thing with a dish towel (to keep out flies) and check it the next day. If the water level has not come up high enough to completely cover the onions, add a bit of salt water, or juice leftover from previous ferments.

Check the onions daily to make sure they are not exposed to air. Bubbles in the jar are a good thing; it means that fermentation is happening. If you get a bit of mold on the top, scrape it off and continue.

I’ve made them twice now. The first time I used kosher salt and let it sit for a week. They were perfect: crisp and delicious and slightly sour. The second time I used celtic sea salt and added a little bit of the juice from the first batch. I also let it sit for a week. The juice helped the fermentation process start up faster, so this batch is more fermented than the first. I think I like the first one better, but they’re both very good.

4 medium sized onions packs a quart jar. I didn’t measure the salt but I’d guess about a tablespoon total, maybe more.

You can cook the onions but, if you eat them raw, you get all the benefits of the cultures. Just like with youghurt.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

We had an appointment in San Francisco last Wednesday and got together with friends at a Korean restaurant I’d read good things about on the net. It did not disappoint.

Han Il Kwan
1802 Balboa Street, San Francisco, CA 94118
(Outer Richmond neighborhood)
(415) 752-4447

Review & Menu

Our party consisted of me (no eggs, dairy, gluten (some soy sauce ok), oranges, or meat), my husband (no pork, prefers no dairy or red meat), my 2.5 year old daughter (same restrictions as me plus no chocolate), a friend from Canada (celiac–no traces of gluten, no traces of dairy or egg, nothing spicy), her husband (no restrictions), and a local friend (no scallops).

Korean food is a bit more complicated than other cuisines for groups likeours. If we all ate the same things, it wouldn’t be a problem, but with several folks unable to tolerate even trace amounts of certain foods, sharing bowls and cooking space was difficult, but we made it work.

Han Il Kwan follows the Korean tradition of cooking at your table, on a grill mounted in the middle. Some Korean places also have hot pots, others have staff cook your food in front of you, and then there are many that don’t do tableside cooking at all. You order the meat or fish of your choice and then you get soup and about a dozen different side dishes, which vary. You don’t order these extras, you simply get what they have, and you can have refills as needed.

Since we arrived early (before 6pm) we were the only customers in the restaurant. Oddly though, the staff treated us like the restaurant was doing a good business. Not like it was full and busy, but certainly not the attentiveness you’d except being the sole table. As the restaurant filled up (including a Korean tour bus that parked out front and sent a couple dozen people to the back room), the service levels didn’t change at all.

The staff was accommodating, with moderate English, and worked with us to keep the allergic among us safe. They did a good job and the meal came off well.

When my friend with celiac phoned them earlier in the day, they said the only meat that was premarinated was the beef. But it turned out that all the meat and fish was marinated. The basic one was soy sauce and sugar. It wasn’t clear if there were others but the waitress confirmed that all of them had soy sauce (which has wheat in it). Fortunately, it wasn’t a problem to get some of our dishes without the marinade.

We ordered Bul Go Gi (“tender BBQ beef marinates in house special sauce” $17.95), BBQ chicken minus the marinade ($15.95), Seafood mix (“grilled octopus, squid, scallops, prawn with special sauce”; we got oysters instead of scallops; they were marinated separately, $16.95), Broiled marinated mackerel (no marinade), and a large container of soup (hot pot). The soup on the menu was $7.95 but they said it came with the meal, so I’m not sure how they billed us, since we only had 4 main dishes for 5 adults. The soup is “soft bean curd, meat, & vegetable in hot sauce” or so I believe. They made ours with no meat or soy sauce and it contained about 10 small bowls worth.

The fish was cooked in the kitchen but the beef, chicken, and seafood mix were served raw, to be cooked on the gas grill in the middle of our table. Lifting out the cover reduced our usable eating space to very little and it was quite crowded, even though the booth easily sat 6. The grill’s cooking space was perhaps 14″x14″ and each dish was large enough to cover the grill twice.

I can imagine how this is supposed to work, with a table sharing everything. You put a little of each dish on the grill and serve it immediately when it is cooked. Each person gets a couple bites of each dish and, by the time they are finished, the next batch is ready. Unfortunately, we didn’t have that luxury. We had to cook the chicken first, so as not to contaminate the grill with marinade, then all the seafood, then the beef. The grill isn’t particularly hot and the food cooks slowly. I didn’t time it but I would guess a half hour passed between starting the chicken and finishing grilling the beef. The grill had many holes in it but was not mesh. There was no visible oil or grease used. It appeared to be either cast iron or cast aluminum.

We weren’t hungry while waiting though. Not only did we have the soup, but we had side dishes. A good dozen or so of them. The staff helpfully pointed out which ones contained forbidden ingredients. There were some pancakes with pork and egg (and probably wheat but we didn’t bother to ask since non of the gluten-free folks ate egg) but no other meat or egg. Four of the dishes had soy sauce in them, so we kept them all together and we instituted a “clean chopsticks” rule where we took some extra chopsticks and kept them with the no-soy sauce dishes for putting more on our plates.

Soy sauce dishes: There was a fish dish that must have been a paste molded into a block, then sliced. Some crunchy dried anchovies. A cubic rectangle of something that was a cross between jello and soft tofu and was quite good. And a root vegetable.

I can’t remember all the non-soy sauce side dishes but they included 2 kinds of pickled radish. One thick strips of daikon and the other was cubes which the staff said was radish but not daikon. These were my favorites, but I’m a sucker for radish. There was a basic kim chee, pickled bean sprouts, pickled cucumber, and a couple others. Nothing was spicy, though occasionally one of us would get a burst of hotness from the pieces of chili that flavored many of the dishes. Even the simple dishes were full of flavor. Either from the very fresh vegetables or from the sauces, mostly vinegar and tomato. I loved them all (tried all but the pancake).

There was a plate of lettuce but it was too bulky and a bit wet. I love lettuce wraps but the flavors of the other foods were subtle enough that the lettuce just diluted it. The beef dish came with a paste which I didn’t try. And each of us got a bowl of white sticky rice (which went very well with the side dish juices).

I just drank water, which was hard to get and in small glasses. Two of the adults shared Korean beer ($6 for a bottle easily the size of 2 regular beers) and one had a sake, served very hot. I tasted the sake and it was amazing. Smooth. I’m fairly clueless about sake but even I could tell this was worlds beyond what I’ve had before. It was nice at room temperature too, but much better when hot.

For dessert, they brought us bowls of sweetened rice water, which was nice. I thought I saw cookies going to another table, so they may have changed it to accommodate our allergies, which was thoughtful of them.

When I looked up reviews of the various Korean restaurants in San Francisco, the ones with tableside cooking got bad reviews for air quality. This one got raves. There are large vent fans over each table and they are very effective. I barely smelled a thing besides the food. The fans were quiet too…I’m not even sure ours was on.

I was quite pleasantly surprised at the ease at which we negotiated the allergy situation. Had the entire group chosen to share all the foods, it would have been even easier. Eggs are used a lot in Korean food, but we only encountered one dish with it (they may have held some back). The only wheat seemed to be in the soy sauce (and maybe the pancake…there were some noodle dishes too but I don’t know which kind). There was no dairy anywhere as far as I could tell. I believe the only soy was in the tofu
and soy sauce.

We all had a great time. They didn’t mind that we stayed for quite some time chatting. And the overall cost was pretty reasonable considering what you get.

I would definitely return if I had the chance.

Although the restaurant had a variety of foods, I’m tagging it for lowcarb (easy to avoid the rice) and for the various allergens we didn’t have trouble navigating). If this were a full list, I’d add in the meats, but it’s not, so I won’t. A vegetarian could eat there (and would enjoy many of the side dishes and the soup) but I can’t guarentee the vegetable dishes were in fact 100% vegetarian and that’s not the focus of the restaurant.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.